ABSTRACT
The poem was composed specifically for a recital event, featuring Florence Farr and WBY, to demonstrate and promote the chanting of lyric poetry to the accompaniment of a stringed instrument, the psaltery. It is the ‘modern development’ of the instrument by Arnold Dolmetsch which is referred to in the title of the poem. Although the program of chanting and accompanied vocal experiment using the psaltery carried on for some time, and had particular influence on WBY's drama, the extent of its success and importance in his lyric poetry is open to debate. The settings of several poems chanted by Farr continued to be printed at various points in WBY's works, but apart from these, the most lasting legacy in WBY's oeuvre is probably this poem. The earliest surviving text is a single sheet of TS in the Berg collection, NYPL.
